InspiredLamb

I'm an English permanent resident living in the US. I freelance for a living. Can anyone tell me what is the best way to take payment for services from the UK into a US bank account, without taking card payments, which I am not set up to do. I've seen some horror stories about Transferwise, PayPal and the bank transfers have hefty fees. Does anyone have experience with this?

Any advice is much appreciated.

MidAtlantic

I would be interested to know what horror stories you have about Transferwise. They are widely used by many on this site, including me.
The Transferwise Borderless Account is designed to meet exactly the requirement you have. I suggest that you explore that.

Just to be clear, I have absolutely no connection with Transferwise except for being a satisfied user. I just keep finding that I am suggesting them! This is the second time today!

Nutmegger

Have you actually spoken with your own US bank? My account allows me to receive wire payments from overseas directly into my US bank account with no fees, but YMMD.

Pulaski

But your usage isn't "exactly the requirement [InspiredLamb] has". .... I can foresee problems using Transferwise or other FX broker-remitter to receive frequent payments from numerous people, or large payments from a few people, and you could find that either the FX broker-remitter closes your account and/or the bank receiving the payment closes your account.

Assuming that the payments are relatively large and infrequent, I would recommend billing in USD and adding the wire-receive fee to your invoice, or finding out if your bank will waive it, as there isn't much justification for it these days. If you're billing in GBP ideally you would have a UK-based bank account to receive payments, but that might be impractical for you.

MidAtlantic

My usage isn't the same because I only use the transfer service, but the Borderless account is designed to meet exactly the need InspiredLamb identified.

Pulaski

(Emphasis added) Really? Payments from numerous people for business purposes?

If that's what Transferwise is doing, then they're playing with fire!

MidAtlantic

Yes exactly that.

"This isn't a bank account, but the account number and sort code we give you work in the same way when receiving money. Just give your account name, number and sort code to your friends, company or customers, and they can send you GBP from any UK bank account. And no one pays any fees".

At any time you can then use the transfer service to transfer GBPs to USDs.

InspiredLamb

Thanks for your response, and I have faith in your independence from Transferwise. :-)
They had a 1.4 out of 5 rating on consumeraffairs.com, and many tales of lost money and transfers that never made it to their destination. It was enough to make me think twice, but if there are that many positive users on this site I would take that as a positive.

InspiredLamb

Thanks for responding. How easy is that transfer to manage from the UK side? Would clients be able to handle it with ease?

InspiredLamb

Thank you for bringing about some extra clarification on this. Appreciate the thoroughness.

Nutmegger

I don't see why not. I provide all of the necessary routing information on my invoices, and nothing has gone astray yet! As Pulaski has noted, sometimes my clients have a bank fee at their end, which is passed on to me, so I adjust my bills accordingly to compensate for that.

Pulaski

I have never been to look before, until a few minutes ago, but per my "playing with fire" comment above, mixed in with a lot of the Google hits of low-level consumer grumbling about Transferwise, there are some really concerning Google hits about things that Transferwise might be involved in. Transferwise has reportedly been flagged as engaged in fraud, and some US banks are reportedly refusing to transfer money to Transferwise, so as per another BE thread active within the past 24 hours, it is possible that it's not that "a bank won't allow a customer to transfer money", it might be that they "won't allow a customer to transfer money to Transferwise!"

InspiredLamb

Now that's interesting. Can you post some of those links, please?

petitefrancaise

I used Stripe to bill and collect payments from the UK a few years ago. Went straight into my US bank account without hiccups. They charged a percentage but I just included that in the bill.
BTW always, always bill in US$ .

InspiredLamb

Thank you for the input. Can I ask why it is important to bill in US$?